Over the past year there has been much talk of “labour shortages” in southern China.

Some people seemed to think that if factories in Guangdong province could no longer get away with forcing employees to work 100-hour weeks, locking them in firetrap factories, and exposing them to the risk of uncompensated maiming or death – all for the princely wage of Rmb500 per month - then it was a sign of serious economic overheating. Or more ominously, that this marked the beginning of the end of the cheap-labour story that has fuelled China’s economic growth for the past decade.